Kellyenne Males, 40 and Tony Males, 43, charged over major cannabis, cocaine, speed and meth drug trafficking operation
A Bendigo mother on Centrelink was allegedly running a major drug operation out of her family home, allegedly using the more than $500,000 in profits to pay for her house reno.
Bendigo
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A Bendigo mother of seven has been charged after police allegedly discovered she was running a major drug operation trafficking hundreds of kilos of drugs out of her family home.
Kellyenne Wilson, 40, of Jonourton, made a bid for bail on Tuesday at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court after she was remanded in custody charged with the commercial trafficking of cannabis and amphetamine.
Following a long police investigation and several raids, police allegedly found Ms Males was trafficking cocaine, meth, ecstasy and speed between January 2021 and July 2024.
Police allege phone records uncovered in a raid reveal Ms Males trafficked a total of 100kg of cannabis, 49g of cocaine, 510g of amphetamines and 8.7g of methamphetamine over a three-and-a-half-year period at a total street value of about $587,000 - although police suspect the total profits could have exceeded $1m, the court heard.
Police allege Ms Males would organise for people to come and pick up drugs from the family home where her five children lived, or she and her brother Tony Males, 43 of Long Gully, would allegedly deliver the drugs.
On one occasion Ms Males allegedly organised to drop off 7g of cocaine after “dishing up dinner” to her kids, the court heard.
Police surveilled the brother and sister’s alleged operation, watching Mr Males carry large black garbage bags allegedly full of drugs to his car and drive them to various locations.
On July 4 detectives intercepted Mr Males and upon searching his car revealed 2.7kg of cannabis, charging him with trafficking cannabis, before arresting Ms Males later that night, seizing 31g of cocaine and a phone that would later allegedly reveal evidence of a major drug trafficking operation.
Police raided Ms Males’ Jonourton home twice in July, allegedly finding large amounts of drugs, including 496g of cannabis in a bowl in the kitchen, meth and MDMA pills where her kids could easily reach them.
She was charged and released on bail both times until police finally cracked her phone that allegedly uncovered evidence of her drug trafficking operation and arrested her in September and charged her with commercial drug trafficking.
The court heard a warrant to search Ms Males’ bank records revealed transactions totalling $300,000 over the last 12 months in one of her accounts, with amounts between $1000 and $5000 paid to her suspected to be proceeds of drug deals.
The court heard Ms Males had been unemployed and on Centrelink benefits for the duration of her alleged offending and had allegedly used the proceeds of her alleged drug dealing to pay for the renovation of her two-storey house and install a “commercial grade trampoline”.
Ms Males made a second bid for bail on Tuesday after her first application was refused on September 30.
The defence argued Ms Males should be released on bail so she could care for her five children living at home.
The prosecution argued Ms Males’ alleged drug dealing was “blatant” and “arrogant” and she would likely continue to traffick drugs if released on bail, allegedly having done so while on bail twice in July.
Police alleged Ms Males had endangered her children by “trafficking huge quantities of drugs” out of her family home, and allegedly would regularly leave her children unsupervised with narcotics in the house while she went to nightclubs in Bendigo to try and deal drugs.
Magistrate Russell Kelly refused Ms Males bail. She will return to court on January 8 for a committal mention as her case heads towards the County Court where she faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
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